Anything Goes Demon Slaying
by Daert
Summary: Aaron Saotome, heir to the Saotome school of Anything Goes Demon Slaying and Knight errant of the Knights Templar, is taken on a training trip by his father, Girai. Watch as the cousin of Ranma Saotome suffers through the Saotome may you live in interesti
1. Chapter 1

Anything-goes demon slaying

Disclaimer: I do not now, nor shall I ever, own the works that are borrowed from to create this fiction. I do own Girai, Maya, Titania, Fluffy, Aaron, and any and all OCs located in this work into perpetuity. There may be some cursing when the characters reach Nerima district, and there will definitely be massive quantities of violence

The fortress was built into the rocky face of the Swiss Alps; it had been there since before the Renaissance and few knew of its existence. Neither banner nor national flag flew from its high turrets, shaped to resemble the crags of the mountains that it was built into, but it was not derelict; within the maze of anterooms and hallways close to a thousand people went on with their lives, forgotten by the majority of the world. These are the protectors, the ones who have forsworn the world to protect the weak; they have been called by many names through their existence: the Nephilim, the Guardians, the Shadow Legion, the rear-guard, and most recently the Knights Templar. The world has changed and the Knights have adapted, but they have continued to defend humanity from the forces of hell and the unsleighe court; the only part of their mission that had changed was that through modern communication they were able to find groups to aid them.

In Africa there were the magi, an ancient order that had all but disappeared; all that remained was a group of elderly priests guarding the Mnganna, a sword that patiently awaited the return of the archangel Gabriel. In North and South America the Order of the Three and the Order of the Manitou strove to keep the Unsleighe from breeching the Shields that protected the mortal world from their predation. In Asia the Knights had made contact with no less than fifty different demon-hunting agencies, magic-user control centers, sidhe alliances, and a group of reformed demons that kept watch over several areas with high-magic pollution. It was this particular area that was inciting one of the largest spousal arguments in the history of the Knights, one that was oddly similar to another happening at the same time on the other side of the world.

"I am _not_ going to let Thunk! you take Thunk! my only son Thunk! on some insane Thunk! training trip!" Maya Saotome, high priestess of the Knights Templar, glared at her quivering wreck of a husband as she aimed the crossbow a few inches higher.

"N...Now my love, c...can't we just talk this over! Thunk! Just please hear me out before you castrate me!" Girai Saotome, knight errant, breathed a sigh of relief as he saw his wife lower the crossbow.

"You have five minutes to convince me not to remove your male prerogative and to allow me to let you take our innocent little boy on some globe-trotting trip to make him some kind of killing machine!" a cloud of golden ki erupted in an aura about her, fizzing and crackling as it incinerated some rather unfortunate bugs that had been flying too close.

"It is a matter of family honour, my dearest; both my brother and I swore to make our children the greatest warriors on earth. We swore this on the grave of the master who trained us. Besides, he is an intelligent lad, he's only six and already he figured out why Brother Dashi keeps having those strange outbreaks of hives; it seems that the dear Brother is a Halvirel (A/N: a Halvirel is a human with sidhe ancestors, this magical bloodline typically includes an allergic reaction to cold-iron)"

"So it is a matter of honour then... I shall let you take him, but only for ten years. At the end of those ten years, if he is not able to show that he has surpassed your combat ability, you must commit seppuku (A/N: a form of ritual suicide used by the Japanese clear up to WWII, the intent was that if a member of a family dishonoured themselves horrifically then they could commit seppuku to spare the honour of the rest of the family. May or may not be used by some of the more traditionalist families in the present day.) After confessing to the entire world that you are the worst father in existence and that you have regularly engaged in romantic liaisons outside of your own species!" unbeknownst to her; more than twelve females of different humanoid species, all with young children, started sneezing uncontrollably.

The ruins of Stonehenge are considered to be a place of power by those who follow the path of the old faiths, but far outside the circles of the standing stones is a relic of true power, a stone of great enchantment forged by the archangels to protect the first mortal warriors from their demonic enemies. It was above this relic that two people of Asiatic descent were standing, wearing what looked like silver reflective cloth with a large red cross on the front; the eldest of the two drew a sword-shaped pendant from around his neck and held it before his son, "Aaron, this is the sword of Balder, Harfeng, the greatest of all archangels. It is the symbol of our order; it will protect you and grant you access to areas that have been sealed away from the view of 'normal' humans. To wake the sword you must hold it in your hand and say 'Harfeng, weapon of the great Balder, the left hand of the one true God; grant me now the power to fulfill my duty to my lord!'" at this the pendant shone with a brilliant golden light, a light that slowly grew into a full sized claymore. "See? Nothing to it! Now try calling it yourself!"

His son nodded and said, "I, Aaron Riku Saotome, do call upon the angelic weapon Harfeng; grant me the power to banish the foes of good to the furthest corner of the abyss in the name of The Alpha and Omega. Sword of Balder, hear my cry!" Girai was about to scold his son on using the wrong summoning when he saw a brilliant glow erupt from the pendant, engulfing the child in its brilliance. When the light faded his son stood there, sans pendant, with strange runes on the back of his hands. The child looked at his hands, at his father, then at nothing at all as he fell into a faint.

The Wiccan temple of Underhenge was a massive compound that was only partially grounded in the real world, more than ninety percent of the compound was on land in the Faerie realm; donated as thanks for finding a way to shield the Sleighe and sidhe from the effects of cold iron. The center of healing was actually part of the palace of Queen Titania, and the queen of the sidhe made it a habit to pop in every so often to help out. She was currently sitting on her favorite chair watching the child sleep, his small form occasionally letting off a burst of swirling ki as the runes on his hand shifted and flowed. She was watching a human body not only containing the power of an angelic weapon, but also adapting it to the body's needs. "W…will he be all right? If he dies then I have no reason to return to the order, I promised my love that he would be safe; that I would train him to be one of the greatest of all the knights. Please, Titania, for the sake of our friendship, please help him." She fixed the depressed knight with a benevolent smile.

"I shall not do a thing because I _need_ not do a thing, he and Harfeng somehow combined into a single form; his body is adapting to the influx of ki well and about the only thing that I suggest is that someone trains him in unarmed combat."

"Why unarmed combat? Why can he not learn the style of the Knights?"

"I am afraid that Harfeng will not allow it, one cannot use any other weapon if one has the weapon of an angel in their hands, or in your son's case, their body; the morphic field of the weapon causes too much damage to the other to sustain its form for more than an hour. Besides, there are more places in the modern world to learn martial arts than there are to learn how to swing a sword" She used her magic to summon a small piece of paper upon which was written a long series of names and addresses. "These are all top masters of their respective arts, specifically ones that owe me more than a few favors; show them the sigil I gave you and they should be more than willing to give the child training, pro-bono.

Two figures fled from a small village in Kazakhstan, breaking land-speed records as they did so. The younger of the two, a child of about thirteen, was simply jogging; the fine mithril mesh of his clothing shining in the sunlight, occasionally clinking as it intercepted tranquilizer darts, rubber bullets, and cabbages that were being thrown at him by an angry crowd of girls and their families. His father was running full tilt, employing one of the moves that he had learned while on the training journey with his brother and Soun Tendo to escape the horde. "What the hell did you do to get these people so upset dad? Please tell me that they aren't more people with illegitimate offspring that you left behind, did you sleep with every woman that you came across?"

"Son, why would you accuse your own father, a respected member of the Knights Templar, with so indecent an act? Show some respect for the one who raised you!" a battle axe embedded itself in a tree less than a foot from his head.

"I will, when you show me something to respect ya old louse! Do you actually think that I would just forget about the _fifty_ different women we've run into, and away from, that had children that looked a heckuva lot like you!" he threw a punch at his father's leg, trying to trip him up so that he would face the results of his infidelity.

"Besides, it is the duty of a martial artist to increase the size of his school. Did you think that we were the only ones of our school out there?" he blocked his son's attack with one of the pans in his pack.

"From what I learned at the few dojos you _didn't_ get us expelled from, banging everything of the female persuasion is NOT the way to increase one's school. Just once I would like to visit a city and not have a half brother or sister holding the family rifle trying to remove my head!" he looked behind him "I think we can stop now, they don't seem to be following us anymore." His father was looking ahead with pure terror written on his features, following his father's gaze; Aaron saw something from man's greatest nightmares.

The creature stood more than fifteen feet tall; its body heavily muscled and covered in scales the colour of dried blood. Its eyes glowed with a light that seemed to absorb all light and life from its surroundings, from its back sprouted two leathery wings; its arms ended in the heads of serpents, and its legs were those of a vulture. The creature emitted an odor like ten-thousand corpses in the noon-day sun, and from its back it drew a massive whip made entirely of flame. The creature opened its mouth and spoke, its voice sounding a falsetto that could scratch glass," I am the Awchdemon Bwzkvnn'kzd, how dare you intwude upon my fowetht! I thall thmite you with my flaming whip!"

Aaron spoke first; his hands folded behind his head in a position that allowed him to stretch his arms and neck without being obvious about it, a grin spread across his face "Where were you when the vowels were handed out, behind the door? Also, what happened to you? From the way you talk, I would've expected a gay bar to be your domain; not an ancient forest like this one! Tell me why I, a member of the Knights Templar, should be afraid of so weak a demon, are you even worth the time it would take for me to defeat you?"

The demon sighed, its shoulders slumping in a visible expression of depression. "Fine, I will tell you the twuth. I am not an awchdemon, my name is Fluffy and I am thwee yearth old. I wath with my mamma and daddy in China when I got lotht, I wandered fow dayth; looking fow them. Many dayth later, I found a gwoup of little pondth and dethided to go thwimming; next thing I know, I'm like thith!"

The two men looked at the imposing figure standing before them, tears flowing pitifully down its cheeks; its body curled in the fetal position, massive sobs escaping its attempts to control them. Girai and Aaron looked at each other and said in unison, "We have to call Titania."

Many people find the queen of the faerie cold and aloof; that is until they see her with children and the ill, her personal mansion is filled with peoples of all races that she has rescued from the predation of the wicked. These people eventually return to the world of men with the task of assisting the sidhe in their mission to defeat the forces of the Unsleighe Court, they also serve as backup for situations that could put their beloved queen in peril. This is why there were currently seven very heavily armed humans surrounding Titania as she approached the transfigured girl. The elven queen simply smiled and motioned her protectors away; she knew that there was no threat to be found in the pure heart of the child named Fluffy.

Titania smiled as she examined her patient, there was no trace of demonic taint, nor was there the signs of a transfiguration spell, just the familiar aura of the Jusenkyo springs and their unique variety of chaos curse. She turned towards the panicked crowd that was shuffling nervously behind her and smiled one of her disarming smiles, "She is pure, there is no demonic taint within her, nor is this a hostile spell. I will need some hot water and my spell pouch, along with the chamomile tea; this could be a very long story, and one that will awaken a lot of memories that I would have loved to keep buried, especially the birth of the Unsleighe"

"It was forty-thousand years ago when Lucifer escaped his prison after being sealed away at the birthing of mankind, eighty thousand years after humanity passed the final test that He had provided them with, one hundred twenty thousand years after the faerie passed the same test, the world that existed at that time was not the sickly world that we know now..."

Please R&R


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and all other copyrighted materials used herein are properties of their respective creators and are not owned by the creator of this piece of fan fiction. The author has no legal claim on these characters and is claiming no profit from this brief foray into the literary world. Please don't sue me; I don't have a penny to my name.

The people of the Nerima district of Tokyo have an amazing capacity for self-delusion, this comes from years of dealing with the level of chaos magic that was used in its founding, thus it is understandable that they would fail to miss the display of skill occurring above their heads.

"I'm WHAT?" shouted a young half-celestial, frantically flapping his wings to catch up to the rapidly departing form of his traveling companion.

"You're engaged to one of the daughters of my old friend and training companion, Soun Tendo, I made a deal with him that the heir to my school would wed one of his children so that the dojo he owns would remain in the anything-goes style. It is a matter of family honor that you wed one of them." The gold dragon sighed as he regarded the half celestial that had caught up to him, readying himself for a fight with his only son over this piece of family trivia; the situation was diffused with a quick chant of a calming spell by a nearby priestess-in-training.

Soun was beside himself with joy, not only was Genma coming with his son, Ranma, but also his other dear friend, Girai, was coming with his own son. _Oh, happy day! I must tell my daughters the joyous news; that their days of pining away for a boy to love them are now at an end!_ "Akane!"

"Kasumi!"

"Yes, father?" said a nearly adult girl in an apron and a simple dress, wiping the flour of the next meal off of her hands.

"Nabiki!"

"Hmmm?" inquired a young woman with a pageboy haircut that was eating a Popsicle while reading The Wall Street Journal.

"Akane! Akane? Where is that girl?" Soun said, looking quite perplexed at the continued absence of his youngest child.

"She said she was going to try a new summoning spell and do some katas before dinner, she and her coven went out to a movie last night and got some new ideas they wanted to test. Why did you call us daddy, is something wrong?"

"No, Nabiki, nothing's wrong. I just have an announcement to make to the whole family, one regarding a hopeful future for the dojo."

A young girl stood in the middle of the family dojo, smoothly switching between katas from different "animal mimicry" disciplines of martial arts, adding the occasional burst of lightning chi and anger ki.

_Kuno came way too close to beating me today_, she thought, gritting her teeth against the bitter memory of him with his face mere inches from kissing hers, _that damn pervert thinks I'm possessed simply because I'm a spellcaster; he's definitely NOT holding back in his attacks anymore. I need to get more powerful in the art, otherwise bokken-for-brains is going to try to "tame his fierce tigress" Shudder ._

She dropped into a defensive crouch and began moving her hands in a complex pattern of arcane symbols, chanting under her breath as she did so. She grinned as she felt the magic catch and the music of the dojo's energy change, seeing the tell tale shimmer of a successful summoning gathering in the center of her warding sigils.

Her grin vanished when she saw the hue of the shimmer change, from a pure white to odd lavender; _it isn't supposed to look like that…_

BAMPH! 

…and that is definitely not the noise it should make. What the hells did I summon, can't see it for the smoke. She flashed a quick set of symbols and the smoke dissipated, revealing… a winged hamster?

SQWERK! 

"Just what the hell kind of familiar are you?"

SQUEEK! 

"An out of work conscience? That's the third most ridiculous thing I've heard today! Fine, guess that I'm stuck with you, so might as well introduce you to my family; if I find out that you're a pervert I'm going to make your life very short and interesting, understand?" she made a motion as if using a very large hammer on a nail.

EEK! 

"Good"

The three girls sat before their father, giving him looks that would have made a smarter man flee for the nearest cover; however, him having a very limited supply of processing power, he was only thinking one thing: _My daughters are so happy at my decision to get them a fiancé that they are speechless._ It was then when reality reasserted itself with a vengeance.

"I'm not going to marry some PERVERT BOY!" shouted Akane, brandishing a very large wooden mallet that hadn't been visible beforehand

SQWERK! 

"Do you even know what they look like daddy?" said Nabiki, giving her father the same face she used while acting as 'The ice queen'

"Oh my! I hope they aren't too young, younger men are so… young." said Kasumi, furrowing her smooth brow at the thought of dating a younger man.

"WAH! My daughters hate me!" then all noise stopped, save for the sound of the door being knocked on by something very large and apparently made of fur. "Kasumi, could you get the door?"

"Yes father." said Kasumi demurely, walking towards the door; only to step back in fear when the door burst open, revealing a creature that looked like a smaller version of one of the monsters that rampaged across Tokyo every so often, only this one seemed to be made of polished gold.

"Damnit dad, you're scaring the poor girl! Move outta the way so I can talk to her." The monster stepped back to reveal a young man in white robes with a pair of large white wings extending from his back.

"Hello, my name is Aaron Saotome, sorry 'bout this, but you seem to have a petite red-head fighting a panda in your back yard."

The girl blinked at him owlishly for a minute before finally deciding on a polite answer to the angel that was betrothed to one of her sisters "Can I get you anything?"

Aaron looked at the woman before him, "umm... what?" _did she even hear a word I said?_ He thought to himself as he saw the approaching group of Tendos.

After a few minutes explaining what was happening, Aaron was utterly convinced that the Tendos were damaged goods. The patriarch, Soun, had taken one look at him, shouted "They've finally come to take me to my beloved Kimiko, farewell my family!" and collapsed into a sobbing heap. The youngest of the three daughters had immediately attacked him with a mallet for upsetting her father before being stopped by her familiar, a creature that Aaron's father had insisted was a "flying miniature giant space hamster", while the oldest said that she was going to get the furoba ready for the guests. The middle Tendo was an enigma; she would look as if she was going to pounce on him then change her mind at the last second, looking introspective and concerned, as if something major had been shaken loose.

The girl and the panda had finally stopped fighting, the girl nailing the panda in the head with a flying kick, sending the massive creature into a rock. The girl then seemed to notice the crowd that had gathered behind her for the first time.

"Hello, my name is Ranma Saotome, sorry 'bout this." Said the redheaded girl, twisting her braid nervously. The announcement of her name seemed to snap the Tendo's father out of his depression, he launched himself to his feet and ran to the girl; enfolding her in a fatherly hug that was terminated when he felt something that shouldn't have been on the chest of his daughter's fiancé, two some things.

"Wha… what? What is this?" said Soun, panic twisting his features as he realized what the unusual pressure meant for his hope of a strong man to look after his youngest when the angel carries him to see his departed wife.

"He is a she, daddy." Said Nabiki, prodding the girl in the chest to emphasize her point.

"Would you please stop that!" hissed the redhead, becoming very aggravated by the unwanted attention. She turned her head and spotted the half celestial and his draconic father, her eyes widening with surprise, "Who are you? Why were you watching me fight?" she said, dropping into a defensive posture.

"I came here for much the same reason as you did, I suppose. Family honor dictates that I have to wed one of the Tendo girls thanks to an agreement between my father," he said while glaring at the dragon that stood by his side, " and Soun Tendo, the weepy guy currently moaning about how cruel fate is and how the schools will never be joined. As for who I am and why I was watching you, it would be better that we discussed such things after we get inside and snap Mr. Manic Depressive out of his gibbering. Should I drag your panda in with us so that we can get some hot water for you two, or would you rather he stay asleep for a while longer?"

"H… how did you know about?" said Ranma, shock written on her features.

"Your Jusenkyo curse? That, my fellow Saotome shall to be spoken of in due time, come on, we should get inside and I need your help moving the incapacitated ones."

The table in the dining area of the Tendo home was filled to capacity when the final member of the household came down the stairs and into the room, Akane had insisted on changing into her robe after she had taken a bath, insisting that she would be joining her coven latter on that evening to mope about how some pervert was now engaged to her. She was surprised at seeing the five unidentified people sitting at the table, but decided that their presence would be explained when the other five got back.

"My name," said a young man that was sitting next to Nabiki, "is Aaron Riku Saotome, what you see me as is not the true me; it is an illusion created by an artifact that was gifted to me by the faerie as a reward for slaying a powerful Unsleighe lord that had been taking human children captive. My true form is that of a half celestial, the result of a human breeding with a kami; that is not how I came to be, my father decided that I should attempt to purify a spring at Jusenkyo to prove my bravery and skill. Needless to say, I ended up becoming cursed myself. I then contacted one of the top mages that specialized in curse modification and had him make the change permanent; before anyone interrupts, there is no cure to a Jusenkyo curse, but it can be modified to a different form." He watched as the faces of the panda, Genma, and Ranma became introspective at this.

" The man sitting next to me is my father, Girai Saotome, the girl in the priestess kimono is my adopted sister, Fluffy Saotome, the kid in the red shirt is my cousin, Ranma Saotome, and the overweight guy in the dirty gi would be my uncle, Genma Saotome. I would like everyone at this table to please revert to their natural forms."

There was a brief moment of strangeness as three forms shifted and flowed into something different, but that was soon gone as the shapes reasserted themselves into the forms they had chosen as their true ones. Aaron had his wings spread wide and was adjusting the white robe that he wore, Girai stretched and folded his legs underneath him so that his head was level with the table, and Fluffy grinned as she waved her two tails in the air, banishing the last of the kinks from them as she unfolded her wings.

"Now, for the next order of business, and why I came here in the first place… Nabiki? Will you marry me?" he looked hopefully at the girl that sat next to him.

Nabiki took one look at the handsome young angel that had just asked the most romantic of questions and knew in her heart of hearts what her answer would be…"Yes, but you must first prove to me that you love me by the end of the year."

Aaron enveloped her in a passionate hug, his wings wrapping around her body as he whispered in her ear, "You stole my heart when I first saw you, for you I would brave the fires of the hells."

AN: the way magic is set up in this is similar to the D20 system; there are nature spells, divine spells, and arcane spells. Also Akane is a Wiccan in this fiction, and yes, her familiar is Boo.


End file.
